ADI to become new neighbor

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Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) has returned to its native city of Cambridge with lease of a building MIT has purchased from Polaroid Corporation.

Analog will convert the building at 21 Osborn Street into a manufacturing plant to produce tiny accelerometers-electronic motion sensors-used in automobile air bags. When the manufacturing plant opens next year, it is expected to create about 100 jobs, a spokesman for Analog Devices said.

The modern four-story, 120,000-square foot brown brick building is situated on a 2.75-acre lot. Visible from Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street, the building forms a triangle with MIT's Graphic Arts Building (N42) and the High Voltage Research Laboratory (N10).

In purchasing the building, MIT Senior Vice President William R. Dickson cited MIT's desire to strengthen the campus, the City of Cambridge and the Cambridge community by continuing MIT's tradition of attracting high tech companies to the city. A portion of the land was occupied by part of MIT's Instrumentation Lab prior to 1977. The lease and the $20 million purchase and sale were announced Feb. 13.

"This new facility will permit us to re-establish our presence in Cambridge, where Analog Devices was founded some 30 years ago," said Franklin Weigold, Analog vice president. "It also continues our long-term relationship with MIT, which has provided ADI numerous key employees, including many of our best technical contributors and our co-founder, chairman, and CEO, Ray Stata." Mr. Stata is a member of the MIT Corporation.